Adolescents and their experience of parental divorce

This paper describes the results of an interview-based study of the reactions of 64 adolescents to the separation and divorce of their parents. The results of the interviews suggest that parental divorce does not necessarily interfere with adolescent development. They also suggest that adolescents would prefer to live in a one-parent home than a two-parent home which is fraught with conflict, and that it is preferable for parents who are unable to resolve such conflict in any other way to separate rather than allow it to persist. Further, the results of the interviews provide some suggestions as to the way divorcing parents should behave if they are to facilitate the adjustment of their adolescent children to the divorce process. In particular, attention is drawn to the extent to which they need to keep their children informed about their intentions, their conduct towards each other following the separation and their conduct in forming and maintaining new relationships.